Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Semiotics were developed to study signs in traditional and mostly static media: spoken
language, texts in books, film, visual art, and so on. Applying semiotics to games, we
need to consider what we classify as signs. We could use semiotics to look at the sig-
nals produced by the game machine in the same way as semiotics would look at the
signs and signals in any other media. In that case, we can talk about the realism of
the signal, or its resemblance to its intended meaning. We can also try to apply semiotic
theory to the game itself and not so much to its output. In that way, you could say
that a game (as a tangible system of rules)
stands for
another system. For example,
the game
World of Warcraft
(the game with all its mechanics)
stands for
an imaginary
fantasy world (with all its intended complexities and nuances). In general, this is
exactly how many people think about simulation, in which you create one system
(the simulation) to model another system (the weather system, for example).
Games and Simulations
Game developers have debated the kinship between games and simulations for
some time. They are similar because they both use a system of rules (or mechanics)
to represent another system (or rather an idea of another system). Yet they are also
different. Game designer, Chris Crawford, observed the following in his 1984 book
The Art of Computer Game Design
:
NOTE
Sine qua non
is a Latin expression
meaning (approxi-
mately) “indispensable
ingredient.”
Accuracy is the
sine qua non
of simulations; clarity the
sine qua non
of games. A simu-
lation bears the same relationship to a game that a technical drawing bears to a painting.
A game is not merely a small simulation lacking the degree of detail that a simulation
possesses; a game deliberately suppresses detail to accentuate the broader message that the
designer wishes to present. Where a simulation is detailed a game is stylized
(Crawford
1984, p. 9).
More recently, game scholar Jesper Juul observed the following:
Games are often stylized simulations; developed not just for fidelity to their source domain,
but for aesthetic purposes. These are adaptations of elements of the real world. The simula-
tion is oriented toward the perceived interesting aspects of soccer, tennis or being a criminal
in a contemporary city
(Juul 2005, p. 172).
Although Crawford distinguished between simulations and games, he was really
talking about simulations for science and engineering versus simulations for games.
Games simulate things too—they're just different things for different reasons. In the
next two sections, we'll contrast the way the simulations in scientific and engineer-
ing research work with the way simulations in entertainment games work.
simULaTiOns in science
In the ordinary practice of science, the scientist begins by making observations of
the real world. She then forms a hypothesis about how nature operates to explain
her observations. To test her hypothesis, she performs experiments on the real world
and makes further observations. The results of those experiments either support her
hypothesis or disprove it; if they disprove it, she revises the hypothesis and tries again.
